Career
The highest rank he has reached is maegashira 2. During his school years, he practiced judo. On graduating from high school, through the efforts of a former teacher, he made contact with Nakadachi (later Sakaigawa) stable and was accepted.
His ring debut was in January 2003.
Sadanofuji spent over seven years in the lower divisions, spending a significant amount of time in all but the lowest division. He spent the bulk of his career in the third makushita division, posting largely 4-3 and 3-4 records.
In March 2010 he finally reached the second jūryō division. Two losing tournaments put him back in makushita for one tournament, but he was back up again for the following September 2009 tournament.
After one more year in jūryō he was promoted to the top-tier makuuchi division.
Sadanofuji produced a bare majority of wins in his first two top division tournaments, but then had four successive make-koshi or losing scores, which saw him demoted back to juryo. However, he made a strong comeback in the November 2012 tournament, winning his first yūshō or tournament championship with a 14-1 record and earning immediate promotion back to makuuchi. He was in the top division for eight consecutive tournaments until being demoted for the May 2014 tournament.
In 2015 he established himself as a top division regular, recording his best score to date of 10-5 in the July 2015 tournament, which saw him ranked among the top maegashira for the first time.
In September however, wrestling at maegashira 2 he lost his first thirteen matches before salvaging wins in the last two days to end with a 2-13 record. He was demoted from the top division after scoring only 4–11 in the following tournament in November.
Sadanofuji was the tsukebito of the upper division wrestler Iwakiyama for many years, but in 2009 his coach, seeing his potential, released him from his duties so he could concentrate on his sumo. Sadanofuji is the first wrestler in makuuchi since Chiyonofuji to have five characters in his ring name.
Sadnofuji is a pusher–thruster who is not keen on fighting on the mawashi or belt.
His most common winning kimarite is oshi dashi, a straightforward push out. He weighed 208 kg (459 lb) at the Aki basho in September 2015, making the joint-heaviest man in the top division alongside Ichinojō.